Romania-France-Bulgaria tri-meet

Romanian national team members outclassed
their opponents in last week-end’s tri-meet held at Deva. The only real problem
for the team remained the code of points, since the performance of the of the
other teams was far below that of the Romanian gymnasts. The team coached by
Octavian Belu, Mariana Bitang and Adrian Boboc took first place in the team
event with 150.475pts, more than 12 points ahead of surprise second place
finishers, the Bulgarian team (137.725). The French team placed third with a
score of 136.275. The Romanian team also took the first 5 places in the
unofficial all-around standings. In the absence of Andreea Raducan,
Sabina Cojocar grabbed the spotlight, scoring a meet-high 9.775 on floor on
her way to first place (37.85 pts). She was followed by Silvia Stroescu
(37.775) Loredana Boboc (37.3), Alexandra Barac (36.9), and
Andreea Ulmeanu (35.825). France’s Clelia Coutzac was the top finisher from
the other countries, taking 6th place with 35.475 pts. Evgenia Kouznetsova of
Bulgaria finished 7th (35,350 p). All competitors received flowers diplomas, and
trophy cups from the local sponsors.

Despite the good results, head coach Octavian Belu said
there’s still a lot of work to be done in order to ensure this team will produce
the results everyone has come to expect from the Romanians. “This meet was meant
as a practice meet in order to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in
November. We wanted to evaluate the girls’ progress and get the judges’ opinion
on their routines in order to correct any mistakes that surfaced. I’m not
pleased with the results because I expected more out of the new gymnasts, but
the competition atmosphere probably didn’t motivate them enough. We’re trying to
find a way to get rid of all the falls and also replace the four gymnasts who
left the team after Sydney.”